Haribo

Hans Riegel, born in 1893 in Friesdorf near Bonn completed training as a confectioner when he finished school. He worked for Kleutgen & Meier as well as in factories in Neuss and Osnabrück.

After the First World War, Hans Riegel became a partner in the company Heinen in Bonn-Kessenich which subsequently became Heinen & Riegel. But by 1920, Hans Riegel had started out with a company of his own. Hans Riegel purchased a house in Bergstrasse in Kessenich, at the time a suburb of Bonn, and set up the first factory there. The starting capital was a sack of sugar, a marble block, a stool, a brick oven, a copper kettle and a roller.

Here in a small backyard laundry-kitchen, began the history of the now world-famous company. On 13th December 1920, Hans Riegel had the company name HARIBO entered in the trade registry of the city of Bonn as an acronym of HAns RIegel BOnn. In 1921, Hans Riegel married his wife Gertrud and she became the first member of staff in the young company.